MESOP MIDEAST WATCH: TRIBUT TO THE KURDS BY SETH FRANTZMAN / BEST WORDS HEARD THESE DAYS ABOUT IR AN & KURDISH RESISTANCE!
Seth Frantzman@sfrantzman 27-9-22 JERUSALEM POST
Why do they call them “separatist groups”…this term is obviously used to excuse Iran regime’s illegal attacks on the Kurdish minority and dissident groups that represent them. There is a systematic attempt by some media to portray Kurds always as “separatists” to excuse attacks
Replying to @sfrantzman
We need to ask tough questions about this phrasing. How does western media decide one minority group is “separatist” and another isn’t? Note that they don’t use this term when talking about many extremist groups; they use it often about Kurdish groups, regardless of platform
Rudaw Kurdish media describes the same incident as “Kurdish opposition groups.” Opposition is more proper neutral term for these groups. Rather than using a term that is pejorative.
Did the NYT interview the groups that were being targeted, according to reports it is “attacks on both the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) and Komala, both Kurdish-Iranian opposition groups with bases in the Kurdistan Region.” So did anyone go to the area
It’s not that these media go and interview the group and ask if they want their own state…and anyway that could be termed “Kurdish rebel” or “dissident” or “Kurdish rights”…note they don’t use terms like “Arab separatist” ever. There is only one group they do this to: Kurds
The phrasing gives Iran’s regime cover…it implicitly accepts the regime’s propaganda. Whenever Kurds want equal rights, or when they protests…they are called “separatists”…but no other group in the region gets this label.
Oddly the same western media that will be quick to label any Kurdish group “separatist”…is the same one in the West that will talk about the need for diversity and human rights and supporting ethnic minorities at home…
And it’s worth noting that the same western countries that didn’t give Kurds the right to decide, and forced them to live under numerous western-backed regimes (i.e Ankara, Saddam, the Shah etc)…then portray them as “separatists.”
This is an interesting methodology…force a minority to live under the boot of some fascist regime…then if the minority rebels, call them “separatist”…rather than listening to what they have to say.
Replying to @sfrantzman
And it should be noted the same narrative isn’t used in regard to some other conflicts…like Kashmir, Palestinians, etc…those issues are not seen as “separatists.” So why Kurdish groups are?
The Syrian regime suppressed Kurds for many years, denied them basic rights, and then any Kurd who disagrees is portrayed as “separatist” when the real separator is the Syrian regime’s racism.
Saddam’s regime gassed Kurds…and then rebels are called “separatist”…when it would seem to me the ones using poison gas are the real separatists…Saddam’s regime was separatist…it was separating itself from the people of Iraq.
And the Ankara regime for many years tried to deny Kurds existed, and deny them language and other rights…and then anyone who says they want equality is made to seem ethnocentric…rather than the other way around…
And Iran’s regime…that regime…is shelling Kurdish groups in Iraq to distract from failures at home…it is not right to pretend this is shelling “separatists”…
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